The chapter discusses the results of an empirical analysis we conducted on the management accounting courses taught at Ca' Foscari between 1871 and 1991. The aim is to explore the roots and the evolution of management accounting at Ca' Foscari. The evidence we collected shows that the early management accounting concepts can be traced back to the course Bookkeeping which was taught in 1871 by Biliotti and, some years later, by Besta. As time went by, management accounting concepts evolved and

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... panded until some specific courses devoted to this field of study were created. The chapter discusses the evolution not only of the contents but also of the teaching methods. In its early years, teaching at Ca' Foscari was very much based on practice (case study, simulations) while it became more theoretical as time went by. We also provide a brief description of the teaching of management accounting at the Harvard Business School, one of the pioneering institutions in management accounting, pointing out some similarities and differences in the Italian and in the United States contexts.